This is the photo I posted the other day of the wall around the corner.
Of course there is a lizard sunning itself on this lovely wall.
How about a blob of blue glass in the wall? Why not?
This wall keeps giving surprises.
Today in Camperdown we wandered past the house with a dry stone wall that has pipes sticking out of it. It is on a corner. We turned the corner and discovered that this part of the wall has reddish-brown solid lasts from shoe making in it. Now that wall is built by someone with great wall building skills and a delightful eccentric, creative streak.
We visited someone this morning who has grown this lovely tree. It is a Cedrella sinensis or Toona sinensis. It is a deciduous tree from east Asia. It has these lovely pink leaves in spring. They turn green apparently and in Autumn they turn yellow. A very colourful tree!
It is frost tolerant and drought tolerant.
#GardeningAU #CamperdownVic
We had lunch with family at the Lake Edge Cafe on Lake Purrumbete. There are a lot of lakes in this area and it holds Ramsar wetlands that are significant for birdlife. I didn't get a chance to do proper photography here or properly look out for birds. But I took this quick photo and saw black swans and ducks on the lake.
The cafe is a favourite of our family. It has seating inside, on a shaded balcony or out in an unshaded part of the balcony. It can get really busy so it is a good idea to book a table. Of course, midweek it was not too busy.
There is a small wildflower garden at the base of Mount Leura. In it is a knitted art installation by Nicky Schonkler. It recognises the current season called Petyan by the First Nations people in this area. Petyan stretches from late August to mid November and is a period when a lot of wildflowers are blooming. The textiles represent the colours of the flowers.
The farmers created dry stone walls like this with the volcanic rocks they removed to make their farms. My mother's family were hired from Scotland in the 19th century to build some of these walls in western Victoria.
You may notice that there is very little native vegetation in this area. The volcanic soils, relatively high rainfall and moderate temperatures made the Western District a bountiful farming area since Euripean settlement. The farmers removed the local vegetation and a lot of volcanic rocks while establishing their farms.
The Friends of the Forgotten Woodlands are now working to re-establish native vegetation in the area. It is an enormous undertaking - credit for their initiative: https://www.friendsoftheforgottenwoodlands.org.au/
Today in Camperdown we drove to the top of the dormant volcano overlooking the town. There are interesting signs about the geology, culture and plants of the area. This view from the top shows the volcanic plain in the area. There are lots of rows of mature Cyprus trees planted by farmers in the past as wind breaks.
These volcanic plains stretch from Mount Gambier in South Australia to Melbourne. They are the 3rd largest volcanic plains on the world. They have found around 700 eruption points in the area. The last eruption was a geologically recent 16,000 years ago.
Yvonne Perkins